Conventional building construction techniques, especially in the construction of a deck or floor surface, rely upon the use of nails or screws and the like passed downwardly through the exposed face surface of the decking or flooring boards and into an underlying support or frame for securing the boards to the frame. This method is not only time consuming, but results in a flooring surface that is blemished by the exposure of many fasteners extended through the top surface of the floor. Moreover, in exterior deck constructions these exposed fasteners provide numerous small traps for collecting and holding water, and define channels for flow of water into and through the boards, thus accelerating deterioration of the decking. Further, the nails used to fasten exterior decking boards tend to work loose over time, becoming raised above the deck surface and creating a safety hazard.
Exterior decking boards also are generally constructed from chemically treated dimension lumber having planar top and bottom surfaces. As these boards dry out over time, they shrink and tend to warp or cup on their upper surface, forming shallow pockets which trap water. This standing water trapped on the top surface of the boards accelerates deterioration of the boards and promotes further cupping, checking and cracking of the boards.
Moreover, conventional decking boards lie flat against the underlying support structure, e.g., floor joists, and with the floor joists define a plurality of separate bays or chambers at the bottom surface of the boards. The full contacting engagement between the boards and joists effectively block flow of air beneath the boards from one bay or chamber to the other, resulting in uneven temperature differentials between adjoining bays and especially from the top surface to the bottom surface of the boards. This lack of air circulation results in non-uniform drying of the boards, further promoting checking, cracking and cupping of the boards.
Additionally, when conventional decking boards are stacked on top of one another for storage they are in substantially full contact with one another over their adjoining surfaces. This full contact between the boards in a stack essentially completely blocks circulation of air around the boards in the stack and results in very slow drying of boards in the second and subsequent layers from the top of a stack.
When lumber is chemically treated to make it resistant to weather and attack by insects, the added moisture resulting from the treatment process causes the lumber to swell. After the lumber has been installed to construct a flooring surface or the like, this added moisture dries out of the lumber causing it to shrink back to its original, milled size. This shrinkage causes the installed boards to separate from one another, sometimes forming unsatisfactorily large cracks or joints between adjacent boards. With conventional construction techniques there is no remedy except to detach the boards and reassemble them more closely together.
A variety of different building components, fastening clips, brackets and the like have been devised in the prior art in an effort to solve some of the problems associated with flooring constructions as discussed above. Some of these constructions require the use of additional supporting structure or adapters that are shaped to accommodate the clips, and/or require that fasteners such as nails and the like be extended into the flooring boards either through the clips or separately therefrom to properly secure the boards. Further, some of the prior art clip designs do not remain properly engaged with the board when the board dries out and shrinks following installation, and do not permit the shrunken boards to be repositioned more closely together after they have dried. Still other prior art clip designs are complicated to make and use and are relatively expensive.
Accordingly, there is need for a simple and inexpensive construction that uses a clip for securing two or more building components together, and especially in the construction of flooring, wherein separate fasteners are not required to be engaged with the flooring material to secure it in place.
Further, there is need for an assembly clip that permits repositioning of flooring boards after they have dried and shrunk away from one another following installation.